Ethical Considerations

| Post date: 2017/05/6 |

Authorship and Acknowledgements

The journal adheres to the definition of authorship set up by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria: i) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; ii) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; iii) Final approval of the version to be published; and iv) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under ‘Acknowledgements’.

Disclosure
At the time of submission, the submitting author must include a disclosure statement in the body of the manuscript. All authors are required to disclose all potential conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations (other than those affiliations listed in the title page of the manuscript) relevant to the subject of their manuscript. This information should be provided under the heading titled ‘Conflicts of interest’ which should appear after the ‘Author contributions’ section and before the ‘References’ section. Authors without conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations relevant to the subject of their manuscript, should include a statement of no such interests in the Disclosure section of the manuscript. Failure to include this information in the manuscript may delay evaluation and review of the manuscript.

Principles for Publication of Research Involving Human Subjects

Manuscripts must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been reviewed by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in an appropriate version of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Brazil 2013), available at http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html. It should also state clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under the study should be omitted. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized (or an eye bar should be used).

In general, submission of a case report should be accompanied by the written consent of the subject (or parent/guardian) before publication; this is particularly important where photographs are to be used or in cases where the unique nature of the incident reported makes it possible for the patient to be identified. While the Editorial Board recognizes that it might not always be possible or appropriate to seek such consent, the onus will be on the authors to demonstrate that this exception applies in their case.

Any experiments involving animals must be demonstrated to be ethically acceptable and must conform to international guidelines for animal usage in research, such as those of the US NIH or the UK Home Office.

Clinical Trials Registry

We require, as a condition of consideration for publication, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrollment. This policy applies to any clinical trial starting enrollment after January 1, 2006. For trials that began enrollment before this date, we require registration by April 1, 2006, before considering the trial for publication. We define a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g., phase 1 trials) are exempt.

We do not advocate one particular registry, but registration must be with a registry that meets the following minimum criteria: (1) accessible to the public at no charge; (2) searchable by standard, electronic (Internet-based) methods; (3) open to all prospective registrants free of charge or at minimal cost; (4) validates registered information; (5) identifies trials with a unique number; and (6) includes information on the investigator(s), research question or hypothesis, methodology, intervention and comparisons, eligibility criteria, primary and secondary outcomes measured, date of registration, anticipated or actual start date, anticipated or actual date of last follow-up, target number of subjects, status (anticipated, ongoing or closed) and funding source(s).

Randomized control trials
Reporting of randomized controlled trials should follow the guidelines of The CONSORT Statement.

Plagiarism Detection. The journal employs a plagiarism detection system the manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works.

Committee on Publication Ethics. The journal still is not a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), but we are committed to implementing the principles of it. We're trying to be a member in the future.
Complaints Procedures
This procedure applies to complaints about the policies, procedures, or actions of The EHJ Editorial Board. We welcome complaints as they provide an opportunity and a spur for improvement, and we aim to respond quickly, courteously, and constructively. The following procedures are followed:Definition
Our definition of a complaint is as follows:

The complainant expresses his or her expression of unhappiness as a complaint.

We infer that the complainant is not simply disagreeing with a decision we have made or something we have published (which happens every day) but thinks that there has been a failure of process; for example, a long delay, a rude response, or a severe misjudgment.

The complaint must be about something that is within the responsibility of The Tbj editorial board - content or process.

How to Make a Complaint

The best way to reach us is by email. Complaints should ideally be made to the person the complainant is already in contact with over the matter being complained about. If that is not appropriate, please email tbj@ssu.ac.ir

Whenever possible, complaints will be processed by the relevant member of the Editorial Board. If that person cannot deal with the complaint, it will be referred to the appropriate section editor or the executive editor.

Complaints that are not under the control of theTbj Editorial Board will be sent to chairman of the Tbj.

All complaints will be acknowledged within seven working days.

If possible, a full response will be made within four weeks. If this is not possible, an interim response will be given within four weeks. Further interim responses will be provided until the complaint is resolved.

If the complainant is not happy with the resolution, s/he can ask for the complaint to be forwarded to the Ethics Committee at School of Public Health at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences.

If the complainant remains unhappy, complaints should be forwarded to the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee, whose decision is final.

If a complainant remains unhappy after what the chancellor’s final decision, the complainant may complain to The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). COPE publishes a code of practice for editors of scientific, technical, and medical journals http://www.publicationethics.org. It will consider complaints against editors but only once a journal's own complaints procedures have been exhausted.

Scientific MisconductsFabrication: Fabrication is the intentional misrepresentation of research results by making up data, such as that reported in a journal article. As with other forms of scientific misconduct, it is the intent to deceive that marks fabrication as highly unethical and different from scientists deceiving themselves. In some jurisdictions, fabrication may be illegal.

Falsification: Falsified evidence could be created by either side in a case (including the police/prosecution in a criminal case), or by someone sympathetic to either side. Misleading by suppressing evidence can also be considered a form of false evidence (by omission).

Plagiarism: Plagiarism of text from a previously published manuscript by the same or another author is a serious publication offence. Small amounts of text may be used, but only where the source of the material is quoted and clearly acknowledged. Fraudulent data or data stolen from other authors is also unethical and will be treated accordingly. Any alleged offence is considered initially by the Editorial Board.